Philadelphia Victorian: The Building of the Athenaeum

By Roger W. Moss (Athenæum) 172pp., 169 duotone illustrations; 10 ½ x II 3/8 full cloth hardcover with slipcase. The Athenæum of Philadelphia sponsored three competitions for a building to house its growing library in the 1830s and 1840s. Few American structures of that period are so richly documented or can claim as competitors such early 19th-century masters as William Strickland, John Haviland, Napoleon LeBrun, Thomas Ustick Walter, Thomas S. Stewart, and John Notman--and have their drawings survive.